The HR folks at CBS are great at screening. I've conducted many job interviews over the past several years and all the applicants have been very professional. A few were right out of college. I've hired some wonderful people to replace several retirees.

That said, the one question that gives me the greatest insight to a prospective employee's character is "what do you like to do in your spare time". If they say "I like to watch TV" then I send them to Chauncey Gardiner perdition. If they say "I like to read", I say what do you like to read. If they say "PEOPLE, IN STYLE..." - CHAUNCEY!!

That said, the one question that gives me the greatest insight to a prospective employee's character is "what do you like to do in your spare time". If they say "I like to watch TV" then I send them to Chauncey Gardiner perdition. If they say "I like to read", I say what do you like to read.

My experience with the many of HR is that they are a bunch of self important twats who really have gotten too used to playing god and who love to hear themselves talk. The above selection criteria don't bode well. The assumption that all who watch TV just are stupid consumers who do not gather knowledge and all who read the "right things" are somehow the next step in mankind's evolution demonstrates serious lack of judgement, and to ask "what do you read" but not "what do you watch" is a disqualification for the position of judgement. There are people who gain more knowledge from one night's TV watching the informative channels than the "good" people going through books for a month.

Job title inflation, there's a good title for a new thread. It used to be the lady who takes care of the toilets soon it has to be hygenal fiscalist. HR used to be financial administration in charge of paying the wages, but that was absolutely not prestigious enough. Then it became personnel office; still not prestigious enough. Now it's HR and I'm certain were still not there in satisfying the ego. What it's going to be is anyone's guess. What it is, people who live in the permanent delusion they are somehow superior judge of character, the same way those folks with just one joke for the rest of their lives are funnier than everyone else.

There was no HR involved in interviews at the company (high tech) I worked for. It was the specific hiring manager(s) and engineers all the way through the process. The only time an applicant saw anyone in HR was after they were hired. I liked that approach. Also, we did a 1 hr 'phone screen' test interview beforehand... which saves a lot of time for everyone involved.

In my experience you can ask all the dumb questions, do personalty tests, background searches, yet every company still has its slackers, numb nuts, butt kissers & self interest jerks who will take down a company to get ahead.

It doesn't weed out the bad apples or guarantee honest, loyal, hard working, knowledgeable, team players. In fact I think you get the exact opposite. Because its the BS artists that are best at "beating" the system.

I was watching Seaquest DSV on Netflix the other day, which I rather like, and it still pretty much works. Anyway, in the episode the kid was working with a group of hackers on the Internex, - yeah with an X, so this was before it really blossomed into the thing it is now. At the end of the show Bob Ballard explorer guy, consultant on the show read a speech about how it was going to transform our lives.

Now, now -- let's not blame the internet completely. Let's say the internet had never been invented (which still would not have involved Al Gore), but let us also say texting had, and that of course texting was as popular. You can pick up just as many poor social skills, as well as writing capabilities, from texting as you can from using the internet.

I remember a little news story from a few years ago of students turning in eassay assignments typed in text speak. Needless to say they were surprised when they received an "F".

I was reading some comments from the commentary section of a couple websites, while looking at poor itnerview happenings, and found one person who had the delusional belief that texters had more social and communication skills than a HR person, because of texting.

Speaking as a person who's communicated with human resource personnel, and young texters, I'll quote Sherman Potter from "M*A*S*H":

"Horse hockey!"

I guess people that clean their bathrooms, poorly, are custodial engineers. Hell, why stop there -- I drive a lot, so maybe I have better driving skills than the people in the Indy 500! OMg -- I have all that talent, who knew?!

And let us remember, employers, including hiring managers, are not without their flaws, either.

On my end I've encountered one's that were rude, curt. One that couldn't even shake your hand or look you in the eye (as well as one store manager who'd look at the wall or floor when passing you by). One guy smoking during the interview process. Bizarre questions; questions that not only don't have relevancy to the job or my capabilities to perform said job, but often indicate the interviewer doesn't even know about the job themselves; to even a couple companies that open with lines that make me want to avoid them all together.

And of course, at least three places that did bring their own pets to work. Some businesses do that.

I'll blame the internet for making it much easier to spread stories about the gormless and the feckless, magnifying such until it can seem that there's an entire generation of clueless idiot nincompoops stupiding around out there. I've been interviewed plenty of times, and seen plenty of fellow interviewees, and have never seen any come in with a cat, or conspicuously ungroomed, or anything along those lines. Nobody I know would dream of having their phone other than silenced or off in an interview. But for sure the internet makes it easy to make fun of the small minority of those who are truly, spectacularly underprepared for life, or to take anecdotal data without any context and decide that the subject of an observation is an idiot without knowing if that's actually the case.

@ Mastadge- Good point, I do think the over abundance of (unsubstantiated) information in the internet age unintentionally magnifies some of these stories. I can't believe any school worth it's soul wouldn't prepare its graduates for the interview process. I know for a fact my school had too, because local businesses demanded it. A schools success is based on how well then can place students.

That said, I recently had to work with a young lady whom lacked any email communication skills at all. Her instructions were illegible, and she couldn't understand basic things I was trying to say to her in return. So those folks are out there too.

Even some professionals who know better, do poor things, as well. Take doctors (of varying fields).

I've met some. One asked me to type up their resume and make it looks nice, since I'm good with that kind of thing. Looking over their stuff, incuding one old resume, it was embarrasing how they wrote. Upper case mixed with lower case, first and last name combined with a period (which were both in lower case), and other errors I would associate with somebody who either was 15 or younger or never went to school period. From a doctor whom was very knowledgable in their profession. I'm not saying they have to be English majors or grammatical experts, but at least some effort would be nice. Sometimes it takes comparrison to other peopl'es abilities, or the internet community to set one straight, but apparently in their profession, nobody cares how you write and type.

Reminds me of a news story from a few years ago here in the U.S. where one business had such problems with the poor scribblings of their doctors, that they litterally made them go to classes to learn how to write better.

And I should note this new generation of people who bury their noses into iCrap during interviews, or even at work, aren't the only folks to get sweapt up in this. I've seen plenty of people in higher positions who are doing this at work. They've already got their job and aren't worried about HR, or their bosses it seems.

I'm litterally seeing cops in their units and speaking on a cellphone while driving with one hand, making turns, merging with traffic, etc. I hope their CB sender is broken, 'cause otherwise they need to hang up, turn the phone off, and pay attention to the road if they can.

This all reminds me of a story. I was having a busy day and brought some food with me. I went to fill out an application at a business. The lady there didn't care, some was a little nasty at times, and as soon as she was done with me, she hopped back onto the computer and was goofing around online -- I know, I could see it. And for some reason, there was this obsession that the application could not leave the building. She wouldn't even let me use a pen, so I dug around and found a pecil in the glovebox of my car.

It was cold in there -- and I don't mean the temperature. So, I knew immediately I didn't want to work for this place. The man who was doing interviews, wasn't even there though he was supposed to be. So, I talked her into letting me use the microwave, located right there in the front of the business for some odd reason, cooked my food, and when she went into the back, I left and drove off with the application. No way they were getting my personal info'. She wasn't happy running out the building yelling about the application, let me tell you. ;-)

And of course, at least three places that did bring their own pets to work. Some businesses do that.

My previous employer brought her pet to work every day. I loved that little guy so much, I used to pet sit, while her family went on their skiing trips every winter.

Times change, and so does the ebb and flow of employer attitudes and requirements. Back in the late 90's (high tech boom) there we various companies in Silicon Valley competing for engineers; so we saw news stories showing people taking their dogs to work, roller skating around the office, taking gym breaks, etc.

Then when the economy goes south... company policy reverses, the dogs go home, roller skates come off, and breaks are frowned upon.

This is nothing new, it's been the same down the ages, some people just don't have a clue. Mind you, a lot of 'em get jobs, just think of all the people you come across who don't know what they're doing, plus a bad attitude. Interviewers have got it easy, they're doing a job that can't be measured, how can they know that the people who didn't get the job wouldn't have been better than the person they employed?